Secret Admirer
by The Lady Cloudy
Summary: Joy has finally given up on chasing after Fabian, just in time to accept her secret admirer into her life. Jerome/Joy. For InkHeart4112's Challenge.


**Secret Admirer**

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><p>Joy rested on her bed, curled into a ball as tears ran down her cheeks and she hugged her knees to her chest. Chasing after Fabian for so long was tiring her out and it hurt every time that he rejected her. Each time it was worse. Despite how she gave him every bit of herself and her love, he didn't even seem to notice her. She'd worked for hours, trying to get her formerly best friend to like her back only to lose his affection and friendship in the process. He'd gotten a new best friend, that American girl, Nina Martin. There was no one else that Joy hated aside from Nina Martin, that stupid insufferable girl who had such a terrible accent.<p>

"Joy?" Patricia asked, knocking on the door of the room that she shared with the now sobbing girl. She wasn't sure if it would upset Joy if she simply barged in and when she'd walked in early Joy had thrown a pillow at her head. The rebellious girl wasn't sure if Joy had any pillows left and she didn't want to find out if Joy would through other things. "C'mon open up. We can go to McDonalds and get that chicken stuff you hate."

"I don't want to!" Joy called back, sounding childish and upset. "I want to go outside with Fabian and watch the stars and pretend we can see extraterrestrial spaceships, like we used to. I don't want Nina and him to go star gazing! Why can't it be me?" she collapsed into sobs after she finished speaking.

"Joy, I'm sorry. Please let me in," Patricia begged.

"Not until he loves me back!" Joy wailed.

With a sigh, Patricia gave up and walked away. She was going to give Joy thirty more minutes to calm down before she came back and tried to talk her again. Joy continued to cry, wallowing in her own misery until another knock came on the door.

"Who is it?" she sniffled miserably as she sat up, having calmed down slightly

"It's Alfie," Alfie replied. "I brought you a box of munchkins. You always tell me that they make you feel better."

"Are they the glazed ones?" Joy questioned timidly as she sat up in her bed, rubbing at her red, slightly bloodshot eyes. She looked sick and every time she spoke it sounded as though she was ill.

"Of course," Alfie told her. Even he knew that there was a time for jokes and this wasn't it. Besides, Patricia had offered him twenty bucks if he gave Joy the box of glazed munchkins and made Joy feel like more people than Patricia cared.

Joy walked over to the door and opened it, sniffing pathetically to keep the snot from dripping out of her nose and down her face. "Thanks," she whispered as she took the box of munchkins away from Alfie before slamming the door in his face.

"Would've been nice if she didn't slam the door in my face," Alfie grumbled as he walked away. "Oh well, it was worth it for the twenty bucks." He realized as an after-thought as a smile danced onto his features.

Joy curled up on her bed, eating glazed munchkins that felt terrible as they slid down her throat while tears spilled down her cheeks. Crying and eating where not the best things to do at the same time, she decided.

"Hey, Joy! Sizzling hot spicy steak's on the table!" Eddie announced as he rapped against her door with his knuckles. "You know that you can't resist the sizzle of that amazing steak Vera makes!" he teased.

"I'm not hungry! Just leave me alone, Eddie!" Joy snapped through a mouthful of munchkin before swallowing. It felt like a lump, larger than the one that impeded her speech at the moment, was slipping down her throat as smoothly as a penguin slides across ice.

"Joy?" The new girl, Natalie White, asked as she knocked on the door to Joy and Patricia's room.

"Yeah, Nat?" Joy replied, calling the girl by the nickname she preferred.

"I have something for you," Natalie explained. "Want me to just slid it under your door?"

"Yeah," Joy sighed.

Natalie bent down and slide the note under the door before she walked away to have dinner.

Joy got up and picked up the note. Her eyes went wide as she read the note.

_My dearest Joy,_

_I'm not very good at poetry, but I felt like it would be appropriate to write you a poem._

_Roses are red,_

_Violets are blue,_

_I would like to go out with you._

_So, Joy, do you want to go out with me this Friday? Maybe we can go star gazing…_

_Your secret admirer,_

_ Jerome Clarke_

"Of course, I'll go out with you," Joy told Jerome with a smile as she looked up to see Jerome leaning against the door frame. He'd opened the door while she'd been reading his letter.

Jerome smiled back at her.

This seemed like the start of something beautiful.

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><p><strong>AN: I hope you liked it. They're kind of an unpredictable couple, but I think they could possibly happen. This story is for InkHeart4112's Challenge. **


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